NYC TEACHER RECRUITMENT

Teacher recruitment is a significant problem for our nation’s large, urban school districts. New York City, for example, has the largest public school system in the United States, with 80,000 teachers and approximately 8,000 new hires annually.

Several years ago, the New York City Department of Education identified a crisis in recruiting a large enough pool of qualified, motivated applicants to meet the needs of the over 1,400 schools and 1.1 million students throughout the city. In response to this problem, Appleseed created a partnership with the Department of Education and the AdCouncil to promote teacher recruitment through strategically placed public service advertisements. The “Join New York’s Brightest -- Teach NYC” campaign is a compelling tribute to the heroic calling of the New York City school teacher. Since the campaign’s launch in 2004, the New York City teacher applicant pool has dramatically increased in size and quality, allowing the Department of Education to meet its annual recruitment goals. Appleseed and the Department of Education are now working on strategies to retain new teachers.